by Tony Abbott
Hob jumped with glee. “It is Hob’s clever plan at work. Salamandra is in big trouble now!”
“So is Nelag,” said Khan. “Poor fellow!”
King Zello boomed out a laugh. “Poor Salamandra! There’s only one way to catch a fast ship — with a faster one! Into the balloon, people! We’re in a race!”
Hooting and hollering, the four children, Hob, Khan, and Zello dashed through the tower and leaped directly into the balloon’s basket. Zello pushed on the controls, and the balloon shot off.
“After that dragon ship!” shouted Keeah.
Eric, Julie, Neal, and Keeah huddled together at the front of the basket as the balloon soared over the plains of Droon.
Keeah’s hair flew wildly in the wind.
“I’m so glad you’re safe,” said Eric. “We all are. We were … scared.”
“I was scared, too,” she said. “But I knew you would help me if you could.”
“Anytime,” said Neal.
“Anywhere,” said Julie.
“We’re catching up,” said Khan, saluting the king of Droon. “Permission to board, sir?”
“Permission granted!” boomed King Zello.
Even as Salamandra tried to control the swift flying ship, it dipped and wobbled, soared and dived. With each crazy motion, Nelag whooped delightedly, “I hate this! Oh, it’s bad!”
“Meaning he loves it!” said Neal.
Moments later, the balloon pulled alongside the dragon ship. Together, the four children, Khan, and King Zello leaped on board.
“Get them!” Salamandra cried from the wheel.
“I don’t think so,” Keeah shot back. Tossing the ghost riders aside, she and her father charged the sorceress from one side, while Eric shot a blast of sparks from the other.
Blam! The thorn staff clattered to the deck and slid off the ship. It dropped right into the balloon below, where it landed at Hob’s feet.
He held it up and cheered.
Neal cheered, too — “Wa-hoo!” — as he, Khan, and Julie freed Nelag from his place on the pedestal.
The sandy dunes of Lumpland were just coming into view when the ship took a steep dive.
“We’re going down!” said King Zello. “Everyone back to the balloon — the good folks, I mean!”
With Julie’s help, they flew back to the balloon. A few moments later, it landed gently on a dune next to Galen’s thorn-covered tower.
“I will get you all!” Salamandra howled at them. “You haven’t seen the last of me — ohhh!”
Vrrrroomm! The ship now began to spin around and around. At the same time there was a loud rumbling coming from the distance.
Thomp-thomp-thomp!
Suddenly, a giant appeared, leaping over the dunes, kicking up waves of sand.
“Thog!” cried Julie. “You’re back!”
“I must save our flag!” the giant yelled.
As the ship lurched and jerked toward the dunes, Thog leaped up, grabbed the mast and sail with one hand, and pulled it loose — ploink!
“Hooray!” yelled Khan as the great flag of Droon waved once more.
Vooom! The ship jerked downward, engulfed entirely in blue light. There was a sudden popping sound, a flash of flame, and one final shriek from Salamandra. Then there was nothing. The sky was empty. They were gone. All of them.
The wicked princess. The creepy ghost riders. Ko’s enchanted dragon ship.
All had vanished as if they had never existed.
“Where did they go?” asked Neal.
Zello shook his head. “I’m not sure, but perhaps Galen can tell us. He’s about to be freed.”
Keeah had already run to join her mother. Linking arms, the queen and her daughter sent a powerful stream of blue light at the tower.
Zzzzz-blam! The thorns fell away from the tower walls and seemed to vanish into nothing, just as Salamandra herself had disappeared.
The real Max and Galen scrambled down from the upper room as their friends hurried to them.
When he had heard the whole story, Galen scanned the sky above. “I doubt we will see her anytime soon,” he said. “Good work, friends.”
“Thank you all for saving our true princess!” said Max, hugging Keeah tightly. “But, tell me, Nelag, how did you manage to convince everyone you were my real master?”
“I should like to know that, too,” said Galen.
The pretend wizard turned completely around, scratched his feet, and chuckled. “I just spoke nonsense. It must have come out right!”
Galen himself laughed. “Hmm. Very funny.”
“Very clever, too!” said Nelag, putting slippers on his hands. “It was I who sent the children a message through their soccer ball!”
Julie frowned, then laughed. “Of course. The message always comes backward. The ball said G-a-l-e-n — meaning — Nelag!”
“You’re welcome,” said Nelag, yawning.
“But how did you know Keeah needed your help at the tower?” asked King Zello.
“After the ghost riders captured Keeah, I followed them. Hob found me in the halls of Plud,” said Nelag. “It was his plan.”
“So,” said Queen Relna, “we must thank little Hob for his clever plan to save Keeah. Good work, Hob. Hob? Now where has he gone to?”
Nelag laughed. “Why, Hob is right here!”
He pointed to the empty space next to him.
Julie’s eyes went wide. “Which means that Hob is definitely missing again.”
“Hob isn’t the only thing missing,” said Khan, peering into the balloon’s basket. “Salamandra’s magic staff is gone, too.”
Keeah blinked. “Hob has the thorn staff?”
“If he does,” said Galen, “then he’s a small imp with big power. We’ll just have to find him.”
“Can we come, too?” asked Eric.
“Of course,” said Keeah. “We didn’t have anything planned for tomorrow, anyway —”
There came a sudden whooshing sound.
“Look,” said Thog, pointing. “It’s beautiful!”
The rainbow-colored staircase stood shimmering over a nearby sand dune.
“Time to go,” said Julie. She handed Thog the small yellow book. “Thank you. I learned a lot.”
Thog bowed and bid everyone good-bye, saying he would plant the flag in Jaffa City then return to his home in Zorfendorf Castle. “To read a quiet book,” he said.
As they watched the giant go, Neal turned to his friends. “Today has been pretty action-packed. And also pretty awesome.”
“It’s always awesome,” said Keeah.
Then, while Keeah and her parents and Galen and Max headed to Khan’s little home for supper, the three friends stepped onto the stairs.
Eric smiled. “You know, guys, today was one of the good days. One of the very good days.”
“Let’s hope there are lots more,” said Julie.
Neal grinned. “And that was one wild ride.”
“Let’s hope there are lots more of those, too!” said Eric.
With a final wave to their friends in Droon, Eric, Julie, and Neal raced up the magic staircase for home.
“How much time do we have?” asked Eric Hinkle as he wheeled his bicycle to the front of the public library.
Julie Rubin hopped off her bike and raced up the steps. “Two hours. Neal’s supposed to get us a worktable.” She pushed through the doors.
Eric paused on the steps. The three friends were meeting at the library to work on school projects. They each had to create a family tree and write a report on a distant ancestor.
Eric looked out over the busy center of their little town. He smiled to himself. People were shopping, strolling, and walking their dogs.
The town had a pizza place, a movie theater, and a skate park. It was everything a town should be.
And soon it would be even better.
He looked up at the banner over Main Street:
NEW CHILDREN’S LIBRARY
GRAND OPENING PARTY AT NOON
TODAY
“More books!” he cheered as he went in.
To the left of the main room were the glass doors of the new children’s wing — two floors of books, computers, videos, and reading areas.
“Hey, guys,” said Neal Kroger, dumping a pile of books on a nearby table. “Now, don’t get me wrong. I love the library. My mom even runs the place. And making a family tree sounds fun. But I’m not a real fan of weekend homework.”
Julie laughed. “It’s our own fault. After our last big adventure you know where, we totally fell asleep in class. And missed the assignment!”
Eric smiled again.
You know where was as different from their town as any two places could possibly be.
You know where was the world of Droon, the very secret and very mysterious land Eric and his friends had discovered under his house.
It all started when a magical rainbow-colored staircase appeared in a small closet in Eric’s basement. At the bottom of those stairs lay a land of mystery and adventure. And awesome friends.
Princess Keeah was a junior wizard and one of their best friends. Galen Longbeard was a master wizard of great age and power. Max was a funny orange-haired spider troll. Together, they all helped keep Droon free from the clutches of a very wicked and very powerful sorcerer. A sorcerer with fins behind his ears and a V-shaped scar on his head. A sorcerer named Lord Sparr.
The kids had helped change Droon’s destiny. But Droon had changed them, too.
For one thing, Eric had gained his own wizard powers. And ever since Julie was scratched by a wingwolf, she had been able to fly. Sometimes, she could even change shape.
“Speaking of you know where,” said Eric as he pulled a notebook from his backpack, “I keep remembering what Keeah said once. That our two worlds are tied closely together.”
“That’s for sure,” said Julie. “Especially now that Sparr is actually here in our world.”
Eric shivered. Sparr was in the Upper World.
In his quest for a mysterious object called the Coiled Viper, the sorcerer discovered a long-forgotten second stairway between Droon and the Upper World. It was called the Dark Stair.
“Sparr may be here,” said Neal, “but he’s not exactly now, if you know what I mean.”
This was true, too. Blasting his way up the Dark Stair in a storm of red lightning, Sparr discovered to his astonishment that the stair led not to the present but to the past.
The year 1470, to be exact.
Sparr tried to use a time portal to travel to the present, where he knew the Viper lay hidden. But the portal collapsed.
Sparr was trapped in the past.
Julie set a yellow pad on the table and pulled two pencils from the pocket of her shorts. “I’m glad Sparr is stuck far back in time. Can you imagine if he actually came here? I mean — yikes!”
Eric breathed in deeply.
That was exactly what Sparr wanted to do.
When Keeah was four years old, she and a witch named Demither secretly climbed the rainbow stairs to Eric’s house. Together, they flew out from his attic and hid something in his town.
It didn’t take a wizard to guess that what they hid and what Sparr was looking for were the same thing.
The Coiled Viper.
But that wasn’t the only problem. A nasty spirit named Om had once made a prophecy to Eric.
You will find it … and give it to Sparr.
Eric trembled to recall those words. He hoped they weren’t true. He hated the idea that he would ever help someone as evil as Sparr.
“Hello, kids!” said a woman in a blue dress, coming to their table with a pile of newspapers. It was the librarian, Mrs. Kroger, Neal’s mother. “I have those newspapers you wanted, Julie. They’re very old, so please be careful.”
“I will be. Thanks!” said Julie. “One of my ancestors was a reporter during the Civil War. I’m going to read her stories in these old papers.”
“Family trees are full of interesting branches,” Mrs. Kroger said, heading back to her desk.
“Interesting and sometimes strange,” Neal whispered. “My aunt races motorcycles. And Grandma Kroger makes art out of old junk!”
Julie laughed. “Are you writing about them?”
“Nope,” said Neal. “I’m going all the way back to 1620, to see if any of my ancestors came on the Mayflower, the boat the Pilgrims sailed to America.”
“It’s called a ship, not a boat,” said Julie.
Eric grinned. “Well, I lucked out. My mom said my great-great-great-grandfather helped the Wright brothers test their airplane in 1904. The library has an old silent movie of the flight.”
“Librarians love silent movies,” said Neal with a chuckle.
As Julie carefully turned the pages of one old newspaper and Neal cracked open a book about the Mayflower, Eric went to the video shelves.
Families are pretty strange, he thought.
Not only did the powerful sea witch Demither turn out to be Keeah’s aunt, but when the kids followed Sparr up the Dark Stair, they discovered that Galen and Sparr were brothers.
Besides that, they were both born in the Upper World and had a third brother named Urik. Urik was a wizard who helped the kids, then took off after Sparr in the time portal. Urik was trapped somewhere in time, too.
“Galen, Urik, and Sparr — brothers,” Eric said as he searched. “Who would believe it —”
He stopped. There was a sudden jangle of bells and what sounded like a whisper.
“Sparr-r-r-r!”
Eric froze. He looked through the shelf. No one was there. Then he laughed. “Okay, too much thinking about Sparr!”
He found the tape he was looking for, then headed to a video workstation across the room from where Neal and Julie were reading.
He inserted the tape, forwarded to the part his mother had told him about, and pressed PLAY. The scratchy images of a silent film came on. The scene showed grassy sand dunes where a small crowd of people had gathered.
In the center stood a flimsy airplane, with wings that looked as if they were made of paper.
The propellers began to turn, and the plane moved along the ground. A man waving a white hat ran alongside the plane until a flash of light streaked across the film and the scene ended.
“That was him!” said Eric. “Mom said my great-great-great-grandfather always wore a white hat! Cool. I’ve got to write about him!”
Suddenly, Neal jumped up from his table. “Holy freak-out! I hope I’m not related to him!”
Mrs. Kroger frowned at him. “Neal, shhh.”
Eric rushed over. “Neal, what is it?”
Neal pointed to the open book on the table. In it was an old ink drawing of the Mayflower being tossed in a storm. On the deck, barely visible in the shadows, was the crouching figure of a man. He seemed normal, except for one thing.
“Fins!” said Neal. “Look at him. He’s got fins behind his ears. You know who has fins behind his ears? Sparr has fins behind his ears.”
“It can’t be,” said Eric, squinting at the book. “It’s just an old picture. Julie, take a look —”
“Shhh, and listen to this!” she said, tapping her newspaper. “In 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, during a balloon flight, there’s suddenly a storm of — are you ready? — red lightning!”
Neal’s eyes went wide. “Red lightning? You know who likes red lightning? Sparr does!”
“No way,” said Eric. “We must all have Sparr on the brain. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Well, it’s freaking me out,” grumbled Neal.
Eric shook his head. “Let’s just keep working.” He walked back over to his video station, rewound the tape, and pressed PLAY again.
This time as he watched the man in the hat, he couldn’t help noticing another man moving along the crowd behind the plane.
Eric’s heart fluttered for a moment.
Just before the film ended, the man turned to the camera. He had deep-set eyes, a sharp nose
, and a pointed beard. He also had a mark on his forehead. It looked like a scar.
A V-shaped scar.
“No way! No way!”
Eric hit the PAUSE button on the video player. His heart seemed to pause, too.
He wanted to scream but couldn’t.
Finally, he just pointed at the screen.
“Guys, get over here! It’s him! It’s — Sparr!”
Text copyright © 2003 by Robert T. Abbott.
Illustrations copyright © 2003 by Scholastic Inc.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.
SCHOLASTIC, LITTLE APPLE, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First printing, May 2003
e-ISBN 978-0-545-41831-7
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